Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 993 0988 [Really scared to death? ]

Fu Yuanheng and Zou Qing came to Yinchuan, with dozens of confessions before them.

The Ningxia Governor's Office and the Censorate no longer dared to take on the case, and they took the initiative to request the Censor to jointly hear the case.

Moreover, when trying a case, the censor is the main person and the local official is the auxiliary person.

Fu Yuanheng quickly read through more than ten confessions and said, "I will preside over the cases involving military officers. The others will be handed over to Censor Zou. I will accompany the trial when necessary."

When Zou Qing saw Qin Hui's name, he swallowed subconsciously and said, "Let's settle the Xuanzhou case as soon as possible. As for the foreign officials that Yang Yuan confessed, they are everywhere in the world and must be reported to the Inspectorate. I guess the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple will also be dispatched. I wonder how many heads will be shed this time."

The fight against corruption is carried out every year.

Looking across the country, officials are brought down almost every month. It is not that there are major crackdowns every few years.

But generally, officials below the fourth rank are investigated.

It is very difficult to investigate above the fourth rank. Not to mention alerting the emperor, at least the cabinet must be alerted.

If a third-rank official is found, the emperor must be alerted.

Qin Hui's official position was of the second rank, but he also had a first rank official title!

For such an important official, not only the Inspectorate dare not investigate, even the Cabinet does not have that power. The emperor must give his personal nod before any action can be taken.

Fu Yuanheng asked: "Have you found out where the stolen money and goods went?"

Zhao Ding said: "According to the confessions of the perpetrators, they sold the stolen goods through merchants. Some of the stolen goods were trafficked to the Western Regions, and some were transported to Shaanxi for sale. The merchants who helped sell the stolen goods were almost all from Shaanxi."

"We have to work with Shaanxi on the case." Zou Qing had a headache.

Fu Yuanheng sighed and said, "Let's continue the trial."

……

Fu Yuanheng went to preside over the trial of the military generals of Xuanzhou, while Zou Qing worked with the Censor to try the officials of Xuanzhou.

If both civil and military officials are involved, they will jointly try the case.

The whole big case was split into many small cases, and each small case was investigated in detail.

If the case is not examined in such detail, and if all the evidence and witnesses are not complete, it will easily be sent back for reexamination when it is reported to the central government for review.

At the same time, Zhao Ding sent a deputy envoy of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner to Shaanxi with his subordinates to ask the Shaanxi Provincial Surveillance Commissioner to assist in handling the case, help arrest the merchants involved, and jointly interrogate and track down the whereabouts of the stolen goods.

As for Yang Yuan, he was to be protected by 200 cavalrymen and escorted to Luoyang as quickly as possible.

Fearing that something unexpected might happen along the way, Zhao Ding specifically assigned responsibility to a general who was not involved - Xiao Heda, a remnant of the Liao Dynasty and a rebel general of the Western Xia.

Xiao Heda made great contributions in the war to destroy the Xia Dynasty, and even spent all his family property when he rebelled against the Xia Dynasty. This kind of person must be set as an example, so he was directly made an earl and temporarily stayed in Ningxia to lead troops.

Xiao Heda was escorted all the way in fear and trepidation, and even ate and slept with Yang Yuan.

When he received the mission, he was completely confused. He was just a newcomer who had just joined the Ming Dynasty, so why was he suddenly asked to escort the official who reported the Minister of Revenue?

If this person commits suicide, how will I bear the consequences?

Lanzhou.

Xiao Heda personally escorted Yang Yuan to live in the post station, and two hundred cavalrymen checked the post station inside and out.

Even the officials who were temporarily staying in the post station were asked to leave by Xiao Heda, including a high-ranking official.

Xiao Heda bowed to everyone and said, "I'm sorry to offend you all. The criminal I'm escorting is too important. We can't afford any mistakes, otherwise everyone's official hats will be in jeopardy."

The officials and runners looked at each other, feeling dissatisfied but also extremely curious.

The high-ranking official asked, "Who is the general escorting? What crime has he committed?"

Xiao Heda shook his head: "I can't ask about this case."

As soon as the word "Tongtian" was mentioned, no one asked any more questions and they all went to find another place to live.

At night, the door is closed.

Yang Yuan was tied up and slept with rags stuffed in his mouth. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. He was shaking all over and couldn't sleep.

To understand what kind of bastard this guy is, just talk about what he did in history.

Qin Hui sneezed at the banquet, which was a bit embarrassing. Yang Yuan immediately burst into laughter, attracting the attention of the whole audience. Then he successfully diverted everyone's attention by telling jokes, making the guests forget about Qin Hui's sneeze.

Qin Hui and Wanqi Xie were fighting each other, so Yang Yuan attacked Wanqi Xie. Zhao Gou failed to save him, and Yang Yuan impeached Wanqi Xie again and again, and finally dismissed him from office.

As his official position became higher and higher, Yang Yuan became more and more arrogant and started to publicize his achievements everywhere, which made Qin Hui very unhappy.

So Qin Hui sent Yang Yuan to be the prefect, away from the capital, out of sight of him.

It happened that Wang Yan, a cousin of Yang Yuan (not Lu You's boss), passed by Yang Yuan's place of work. After getting drunk, Wang Yan took credit for it and said, "Do you remember that you wrote a letter to Prime Minister Lu (Lü Yihao) and said bad things about Qin Hui? Fortunately, I was an official in Prime Minister Lu's mansion, and I secretly intercepted the letter."

Yang Yuan was so frightened that he forced his cousin Wang Yan to stay and put him under house arrest for two years!

Wang Yan took advantage of Yang Yuan's banquet and escaped overnight when the guards were lax.

In fact, Wang Yan did not go to Qin Hui to complain, but the more Yang Yuan thought about it, the more afraid he became that he might scare himself to death.

At this moment, Yang Yuan was scaring himself.

Qin Hui was a close friend of the emperor, and he was in a high position and was favored by the emperor. Was it possible that he would displease the emperor by reporting Qin Hui? Was it possible that he would be secretly killed by the emperor when he arrived in Luoyang?
Or maybe the emperor simply didn't have time to find out, as Qin Hui was in a high position of power in Luoyang, would he bribe the jailer to kill him?
The more I think about it, the more likely it is!

Yang Yuan began to become mentally confused and was awakened by nightmares every night.

At first, Xiao Heda thought he was pretending to be sick, but gradually he realized something was wrong. When they arrived in Chang'an, Yang Yuan looked haggard and listless due to severe lack of sleep. Xiao Heda quickly called a doctor.

After the diagnosis, Xiao Heda pulled the doctor outside and asked, "What's wrong with this person?"

The doctor said, "Heart disease. Has he not slept for a long time?"

Xiao Heda nodded: "I have nightmares every night. I ripped the rag from his mouth, and he screamed in his dream, 'Spare my life', 'Don't kill me'. I couldn't fall asleep after being woken up by nightmares. I tossed and turned all night long, and I couldn't sleep either."

The doctor said: "I can only prescribe some medicine to help you sleep."

The doctor wrote a prescription and left. Xiao Heda watched the soldiers boil the medicine with his own eyes, and then he personally brought it to Yang Yuan to take.

Xiao Heda tore open the rag gagged in his mouth and said, "The doctor said you have a heart disease, and you will get better if you take some medicine."

Yang Yuan looked at the dark medicine soup, suddenly showing a look of shock, crying and begging: "General, please spare my life, General, please spare my life, everything I confessed before was a lie."

Xiao Heda was extremely depressed: "Why should I spare your life? I will just escort you to Luoyang."

However, Yang Yuan was certain that what he saw was poison, so he turned his face away, clenched his teeth and said nothing.

Xiao Heda ordered: "Come here, pry open his teeth and pour the medicine in!"

As several soldiers entered the room, Yang Yuan was already terrified and began to struggle frantically to hide.

But he was still held down tightly, and his mouth was forcibly pried open. Xiao Heda personally took the bowl and poured the medicine into his mouth.

While pouring, Xiao Heda suddenly stopped and asked in confusion: "Why is this person not moving?"

But Yang Yuan lay on the bed with his mouth wide open and eyes wide open, without any reaction.

A soldier stretched out his finger to feel Yang Yuan's breath and said in a trembling voice, "No...no breath."

Xiao Heda was stunned.

who am I?
Where am i?

What am I going to do?
After a long while, Xiao Heda suddenly shouted, "Quickly bring back the doctor to testify. Don't move anything in this house!"

Immediately, Xiao Heda ran quickly to the stable and rode his horse straight to the Shaanxi Provincial Government and Censorate.

That evening, all officials from the three departments of Shaanxi arrived, bringing with them coroners at the provincial, government and county levels to jointly perform the autopsy.

Based on the autopsy results and the information provided by Xiao Heda and the doctor, the coroners unanimously agreed that Yang Yuan was frightened to death.

Everyone looked at each other, some even felt a little amused.

The chief officials of the three departments in Shaanxi, as well as the three-level coroners at the provincial, prefectural and county levels, all wrote a relevant report truthfully under Xiao Heda's earnest request.

They already knew the inside story, and as they watched Xiao Heda carry the corpse away, they all showed sympathetic looks.

This person is so unlucky!
Xiao Heda arrived in Luoyang in a daze, went straight to the Inspectorate to explain the situation, and then requested to enter the palace to meet the emperor.

The palace reacted quickly and Xiao Heda was taken away by the eunuch that same day.

"Your Majesty, Yang Yuan was really scared to death!" Xiao Heda knelt down and kowtowed to explain when they met.

Zhu Ming was also a little speechless: "Stand up, what does it mean to cry so much? Please take a seat."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Xiao Heda sat down carefully, then recounted in detail what happened along the way, and said that the officials from the three offices in Shaanxi could testify for him.

"This is not General Xiao's fault," Zhu Ming said. "The remnants of the Western Xia have been suppressed, and General Xiao has just returned to Beijing. So you should stay in the Privy Council. You are over fifty years old, and you should enjoy your old age in a prosperous place."

Xiao Heda didn't care about being stripped of his military power, and he never thought that he could continue to command the army.

For a Liao Dynasty survivor who rebelled against Western Xia, being able to become an earl in the Ming Dynasty and holding a sinecure in the Privy Council was already a perfect ending.

Xiao Heda thanked him again.

Zhu Ming encouraged him again and the conversation was almost over. Xiao Heda bowed and took his leave.

As he walked out of the palace, he felt refreshed both physically and mentally, and all the melancholy he had felt in the past few days was gone.

The Holy Emperor was truly merciful and magnanimous. He did not even hold himself responsible, and he even granted a mansion in the capital to the official.

In the Chuigong Hall, Zhu Ming was also speechless.

How could such a crucial whistleblower be frightened to death?

"Bai Sheng." Zhu Ming shouted.

"Here!" Bai Sheng walked quickly into the hall.

Zhu Ming said: "You personally lead the guards to surround Qin Hui's house. No one is allowed to enter or leave at will. Especially the small house he secretly bought. Search carefully to see if there is any evidence of corruption!"

Qin Hui had no idea that he had always been in the emperor's favor and that someone had been keeping an eye on him in recent years.

Even when he was in Kaifeng, he secretly kept a mistress without telling his wife, and the emperor knew about it.

We just lack a reason to investigate him.

After all, Qin Hui was a Shangshu, and it was not convenient for the emperor to send people to search his private residence, and it was a small courtyard that he had purchased secretly.

If this matter were to spread, it would have a bad impact and would make all the important officials in the court feel insecure, and even develop a mentality of "the death of the rabbit makes the fox mourn the loss of the rabbit" - the emperor knew about Qin Hui's secret private residence, so was he being monitored by the emperor?
Spy politics can only be carried out under special circumstances and is not a long-term and healthy means of governance.

(End of this chapter)